The Hidden Danger of Your "Zombie" Products

Every business has them. They are the products or services that were once promising, but now just exist. They generate some revenue, but not enough to be exciting. They have some customers, but not enough to be a core focus. These are your "zombie" products. They are not dead, but they are not truly alive either. And they are silently killing your company's future.

The danger of zombie products is not that they lose money—often, they are marginally profitable. The true danger is the massive, hidden opportunity cost they represent. Your best engineers, your top salespeople, and your most creative marketers are all spending a portion of their time and energy supporting these legacy offerings. This is time and energy that could be invested in your next big growth engine. Every hour spent maintaining a zombie product is an hour not spent building the future.

The Telltale Signs of a Zombie Product

How do you identify a zombie in your portfolio?

• Declining Growth: It has flat or declining revenue year-over-year.

• Low Strategic Fit: It no longer aligns with your core strategy or your vision for the future.

• High Maintenance Cost: It requires a disproportionate amount of resources (engineering, support, etc.) relative to the revenue it generates.

• Lack of an Internal Champion: No one on your leadership team is genuinely excited about its future.

The Strategic Drain of Zombies

Zombie products don't just consume resources; they create strategic confusion. They clutter your marketing message, confuse your sales team, and complicate your technology stack. They create a drag on innovation and make your entire organization less agile. A lean, focused portfolio allows you to move faster and with greater clarity of purpose.

The Courage to Act: Revitalize or Divest

Once you've identified a zombie, you have two choices. You can either make a deliberate, strategic decision to invest in revitalizing it—repositioning it, re-engineering it, and giving it a clear role in your future. Or, you can have the courage to divest, sun-setting the product and re-allocating its resources to higher-value opportunities. Doing nothing is the worst possible option; it is a slow bleed of your most valuable resources.

A rigorous, data-driven review of your entire product and service portfolio is one of the highest-return activities a leadership team can undertake. Our Product & Service Portfolio Rationalization engagements provide the objective, outside-in perspective needed to make these tough but necessary decisions, ensuring that your resources are focused squarely on driving future growth.